Chapter 18

"I'm fine. I really am. Doesn't even hurt." Rose protested, as Madam Promfrey checked her head injury. "Can I just go? I'll be late for Charms -"

"Professor Flitwick will understand." Madam Promfrey sniffed, and, with an exaggerated sigh, Rose allowed her head to be prodded, careful not to show any sign of pain. The bump on her head didn't hurt, unless someone jabbed it like that. And what kind of person walks around jabbing head lumps?

"I suppose you can leave." Madam Promfrey said finally, and Rose jumped up, before she could change her mind.

"Thanks, bye!"

She'd hoped to catch Scorpius before Charms, even though she had no idea what to say. She'd lain awake for hours, thinking about what she'd heard, and was determined that they would work it out.

Instead, she barely had time she change her robes and brush her teeth before running to her class. Of course, professor Flitwick would have understood, but arriving late clashed with Rose's morals.

"You're out!" Cassie, the first person to see her arrive, cried, and Rose nodded as she took her seat.

"I'm fine." Rose added for emphasis, and cursed the fact that they had Charms with the Ravenclaws, not the Slytherins.

"We would have come to see you, but we figured your family'd be there." Allison told her.

"Yeah, they were." Rose replied distractedly.

Charms took ridiculously long to end, of course. Rose barely noticed what she was doing, and twice she made tiny shards of glass fall from her wand tip, like lethal tears, with no idea how she'd done so.

Defence Against The Dark Arts was also Slytherin-free, and to Rose's frustration she saw no sign of Scorpius in the corridors on her way there.

"Are you OK?" Al asked, as they paired up.

"Fine."

"You seem...distracted." Al said, and waited until she realised he'd spoke before repeating himself.

"I am." Rose sighed, and, after a brief hesitation, told Al of Scorpius' visit, of falling asleep, and waking to hear him telling someone he hadn't meant to hurt her. "...I thought he was talking to me, you see, but he wasn't near my bed. Then I heard my dad's voice..."

Albus listened in silence as she explained, and then paused to choose his words.

"And you think you and Scorpius can get back together?"

"Yes." Rose said, her eyes bright. Then the light dimmed as she realised Al wasn't convinced. "Why not?"

"Well...OK, so your dad's fine with it. But what about Scorpius' parents?" Albus said carefully, and watched the light extinguish.

"I guess I didn't think it through properly." She admitted. "But...well, I still have to talk to him, don't I? Al, I know this shouldn't be that important to me, I know I should accept it's over and move on. Allison's already given me the speech. But we never even got a proper chance, did we? And I have to try get that chance."

Al nodded, checked his watch and looked back up. "Ten minutes left. Good luck."

"Thanks." Rose replied, satisfied that while she didn't have Al's belief, she had his support.

----

"Scorpius!" Rose yelled, louder that she actually needed to. Startled, Scorpius halted and turned to seek her in the crowd.

"Hi." He said uncomfortably. "I - I guess you want the map, right? I was just going to find Al." He drew the marauder's map from his pocket, either ignoring or not seeing Rose's confusion.

"Uh...thanks." She said finally, and put it in her pocket, deciding not to ask how or why he had it. "Actually, I wanted to talk to you. Um, in here?" She pulled him into a passage way - coincidently, that same one they'd argued in all those weeks ago. "Last night, my dad - he thought I was asleep - he said something..."

Scorpius listened as she explained, but she saw the exact moment he realised what she intended. His eyes, usually a cool grey, eyes that she had once thought warmed when he looked at her, seemed to freeze over.

"Rose...this doesn't change anything." He told her gently. "We decided it wouldn't work -"

"Yes, but my dad said he'd accept it."

"Mine hasn't." Scorpius said, his tone deliberately cold.

"He will, Scorpius, he will. If my dad can, yours will come around -"

"Rose, please, don't do this to yourself." Scorpius replied, in that same cold tone. "We can't, OK? We agreed it wouldn't work -"

"So you won't even give us a real chance?" She said, stepping back from him as though his words had hurt her.

"I'm sorry. I don't see the point in trying again, not when we're going to end up deciding it can't work and break up again." It was the dissmisivness, rather than the coldness, that stung. That he would dismiss her like that, as though she was a servent or slave.

"I thought...I thought I meant more to you than that." She said quietly, her eyes fixed on his, as though she was waiting for them to thaw again.

"You don't understand!" Scorpius cried, the first hint of real emotion seeping into his voice. "It's because of what you mean to me. I won't hurt you again, Rose. I won't."

He turned, left the passage, but not before he heard her whisper "You already have".

Didn't she understand that they couldn't work? That they'd just end up hurting themselves, each other and possibly even the people around them?

He was a Malfoy. There was no denying that, no matter how often he'd wished he could. He was a Malfoy, and Malfoys were known for the destruction they caused, the pain.

He didn't want to hurt and damage Rose, and, yes, he didn't want to hurt and damage himself, either. It was better that they stayed apart, that they accepted they weren't meant to be, that he accepted he couldn't have her.

Maybe he'd only ever wanted her because he'd known it couldn't happen. Maybe he had coveted the impossible, as so many did.

"Maybe it just wasn't meant to be."

"What if it was? What if it was meant to be, and we're making a mistake?"

Scorpius hesitated, turned and looked back, just in time to see a flash of red hair whip around the corner at the other end of the corridor.

"Why did you save him, though, grandma? I though you were on the other side, I thought you wanted the bad man to win then?" He was just five, and hearing the story for the first time.

"I didn't care who won by then." Narcissa had told him. "I was too worried about my son - your daddy - and...well, Harry Potter was the same age as your daddy then. Barely more than a child, and I couldn't be the one to send him to his death."

"But wouldn't you have been killed, if the bad man found out that you lied?"

"Yes. But - and I learnt it the hard way - it's best to do the right thing."

He wasn't sure what the right thing was anymore. Wasn't sure if he had taken the easy way out by letting her go.

"Someone once said it's better to do the right thing than the easy thing." Draco Malfoy told him uncomfortably, as though unsure he should really use the word. Scorpius, nine or ten at the time, stared in wonder.

But had it been easier to let her go, rather than fight for that one chance she wanted to give them?

"If it came down to us or her, who would you choose?"

Why, though, did he have to choose? Did everything have to come down to a single choice? If life was full of choices, then why would he have to chose now? Could one decision, made this early in his life, cost him his family?

The odds were stacked against him and Rose, had been since the beginning. Was that really why it had been so fun, so exhilerating, to be with her? But was that why he'd given up so soon, because he hadn't the strength to face up to them? He'd never learned how to fight for what he wanted, had he?

He couldn't choose between his family or Rose. He knew she didn't expect him to, either. It had been his family - as well as hers - that had made this whole thing into a big issue, had made something that should have been simple and almost casual in the beginning into something complex and stressful.

He wished he had the guts to go after her, to defy his family and face any trouble it caused. But he didn't, and for the first time he truly accepted that he didn't belong in Gryffindor, for his nerve would fail him often, or Hufflepuff, as trust and loyalty were so hard for him to posses, or Ravenclaw, because he wouldn't take a problem and solve it the best way, but instead hide from it.

No, he did belong in Slytherin, he preferred to take the easier path, to choose the course that would hurt him least. And so, instead of facing his fears, or trusting everything would work out, or trying to fix the problem completely, he would simply clear his path the best he could.

Aware that he had only minutes until the end of break, Scorpius ran flat out to his dorm, and scribbled a single line onto a piece of parchment.

Will you make me choose between the family and Rose?

He sat for another full minute, trying to find more words. In the end, however, he could think of nothing more, and so he rolled and sealed the parchment, and sent it out with his owl.

The answer was his best hope. Hopefully, it would allow him to fix this. If not, Scorpius would have to decide whether or not he could fight.

Nothing worth having ever comes easy.

Remembering the words made his heart sink.

Before he could think much more, however, the bell rang, signalling that the students should be in their lessons. Swearing loudly, Scorpius jumped to his feet and took off running again.